New Zealand - First 3 days

The last 10 days have been a whirlwind of gorgeous scenery, natural (and unnatural) disasters, hours of driving, and a lot of ups and downs.  If you are planning on renting a giant RV and taking your 3 'under 3's', I would suggest REALLY thinking about what you're getting yourself into before making the leap! We made a ton of memories and are proud to say we survived our first family road trip!

Day 1: 6pm flight to Christchurch NZ.  Arrive at hotel 1am!

Drew got his own seat for a while!

Isla getting comfy

We immediately fell asleep upon arrival at the hotel and awoke bright and early to start our first day on the road.  When checking out the 'nice' man at the front desk asked what my itinerary was for our trip.  I told him and he immediately snubbed it saying "You are wasting your time and are seeing the backside of New Zealand".  Not super happy with that man, but we made some adjustments to our schedule which included a few extra hours of driving.  But it was probably well worth it.  So, maybe hotel man wasn't so bad after all.

Day 2: 1st day on the road

Devon doing a fabulous job driving a HUGE campervan on the LEFT side of the road

Ian fast asleep!

Isla fast asleep
(Not shown: Drew fast asleep)

Isla with the wind in her hair!

First stop: A town called Oamaru on the way to our first destination Dunedin.  Oamaru was very quaint and a nice stop after a few hours of driving.  We were supposed to see the famous blue penguin colony, but they were all out fishing while we were there.  We walked around and saw the sights.

First glimpse of the Campervan

Who wouldn't want to enter a building with 'Whisky' in very large writing on it?

Where the penguins were supposed to be!

Throwing rocks in the water

Happy boys

There were a lot of these old carriages just sitting around the town

Wine tasting!  Yum!

Again on the road for another couple of hours for our first night in the camper in Dunedin.

Home sweet home

The boys got their own room!

Day 4:

Dunedin - a town with Scottish connections.  I like the sound of that!!  We went to Larnach castle.  It was supposed to look like this:

But we saw this:

It was foggy and drizzling outside, but honestly it made it very charming.  And added to the Scottish look and feel of the place.  Ahh, felt like home away from home.

The gardens were really pretty

The kids loved running around

Ian walking!  Sort of frankenstein like, but getting from point A to point B!

We were not allowed to take pictures inside the castle and there were many many steps.  Devon and I had to carry the boys through the whole tour.  They are getting super heavy and very wiggly.  We made it to the very top of the castle tower going up a step set of windy and narrow stairs.  I told Isla it's where rapunzul let down her hair.  She got a kick out of that!

The thing about driving around a big camper is that it's very hard to stop and park on a whim if you see something interesting.  Unfortunately we had to do a lot of sightseeing from the windows of the van.  It was a very different way to travel than what we remember.  We made it work though, and pushed through!

Day 5 coming soon.  On our way to Queenstown!  STAY TUNED!!